While visiting with my wife's folks in nearby Millwood (VA), we made a half-day hike to visit this enjoyable highpoint, located about 25 miles of driving from Millwood. We left early in the morning and made some quick fuel and drink stops, taking routes US-340 to Berryville, VA-7 east to Round Hill, and some local roads north a bit to Appalachian Trail Road, which allowed for easy access onto the famous Appalachian Trail. The highpoint of Jefferson County, West Virginia (the easternmost West Virginia County) lies on the West Virginia & Virginia state line. Our whole road approach and about 95% of the hike would keep us inside Virginia. Only the final few feet to seek out the highpoint would we be in West Virginia.

From Round Hill we took it slow as we traveled north through Main Street and then on Woodgrove Road. This road also has a numerical highway designation which I do not recall. About 3 miles north of town we took a left onto Appalachian Trail Road. This road seems to end at a nice gate to someone's property just a half-mile in, but a hard right kept us on the proper road and we soon arrived at the Blackburn Visitor's Center, which acts as a waypoint hostel fro hikers on the Appalachian Trail, which in these here parts generally runs along the crest of the Blue Mountains, designating the boundary between the two Virginias. The final couple of miles are dirt roads but passable to most passenger vehicles. They were steep, though. There is some limited parking just below the Blackburn buildings. We arrived about 8 a.m. and were the only dayhikers there. We could hear some voices and some activity up at the Blackburn facility, just a stone's throw up the road (the road is signed here as "authorized vehicles only"). The weather was pretty nice. We had tons of shade and it was still pleasantly cool in the shade and soft breeze.

After a few minutes of getting ready we walked up the last few hundred feet of road to the Blackburn Center and found the spur trail to the Appalachian Trail up behind the buildings. We hiked a hearty half-mile and 240 feet of gain to attain the Appalachian Trail, where we turned south and started on our way. For the first mile or so we hiked level, with the humidity abating and the shade providing nice relief.

Along the way we came upon a group of about 10 young people, ages roughly in the 11-14 range, just standing around. One girl had sat on a hornet's nest and got herself stung a few times, her arms and neck covered in welts. They were waiting for their leaders to show up. We quizzed them to make sure everyone was alright. Even though my EMT status lapsed a year ago, we decided to stay with them to ensure she wouldn't have any undue reactions (like anaphylaxis) from the bee stings. They had daubed her with Calamine, but carried no medications. The leaders apparently carried an epinephrine pen in their stash, but they were behind for some reason. In a few minutes the "leaders" showed up, the eldest about 19. They helped the young lady, and we left once we were satisfied the whole situation was under control. Total time here, about 15 minutes.

Beth and I continued south as the trail started a long, gentle descent into Wilson Gap, a low point along the ridge and home to a very scant little creek. Afterwards, the trail started another gentle uphill to pretty much put us back at our original elevation. Now it was time to seek out the highpoint. With some trip reports in hand and my own maps and GPS, we identified the correct ridge that held the highpoint for Jefferson County. We'd have to leave the trail and hike a short way up a slope, then walk the ridge to seek out the top. On paper this seemed easy enough. The off trail portion was mainly a bed of leaves and light underbrush, plus a lot of fallen logs and rocky outcrops.

At one point I was helping Beth walk across a log when she started to cower and go "oooh ... oooh ... snake ... snake!" I started to get concerned because I couldn't see it. We backed up a bit and she pointed it to me: a slender, pointy-headed serpent with distinct diamond-back pattern. Eastern Diamondback, we thought (we are not snake experts but definitely know that triangular head shape well). Looking in on some webpages it may have been a copperhead snake, and maybe a young one at that. See the photo at left and tell us what you think. We took no chances and backed up, and took another route to the top.

Basically we were at the highpoint: we just needed to tag about three piles of rocks that might tie for the honors. But spooked by the snake we took our steps very slowly and deliberately. The undergrowth was very light, fortunately, but those little bastards blend in so well you can be right on top of one and not know it. Finally we visited each of the three major rock piles (and also noted some odd, small metallic whatnots pushed into various trees which we surmised might have something to do with the state line boundary). My GPS pegged our location as accurate and we got moving back down the slope. We were glad to be back onto the trail, and our hike out went quickly and without event. I figured our stats to be about five miles round trip, and about 600 feet of gross gain in about 4.5 hours total at a leisurely pace (and a slowed pace up top brought on by snake-a-phobia)

On our drive back to Millwood Beth directed me to take Highway VA-601, which can be found at the gap in the Blue Mountains where VA-7 tops out just west of Round Hill. This road connects down to US-50 near the town of Paris and nearby the Loudoun County highpoint. For a local road it is very well maintained and looks brand new. Shortly we came upon a heavily fenced, gated, tarped and barbed-wired complex! What could it be? Beth told me to drive in an entry road, so I did. I felt real uncomfortable being here, so we backed out. There's actually more to this story, but no one would ever believe me if I typed it here. Suffice to know this: Beth's late father was a Brigadier General in the Army, and her late step-father a Lieutenant General. Beth knows things most of us do not, like locations of things and what that building really does, stuff like that. I won't reveal too much about this location. Let's just say "it's important".